No wonder I stumble over my words in spanish!

Check this out for a word - otorrinolaringologico. How can it legitimately have so many syllables??? Little wonder I sometimes get stuck half way through trying to say a word, let alone a complete sentence!

Ecuadorian Roads

When we first got to Ecuador I thought they did a poor job of infrastructure management. The roads were shocking, landslides and caved in bits of road were everywhere. The wise teacher of time has enlightened me somewhat however. A while back the road to Vilcabamba had significant work done on it over a period of time and was just perfect. For all of a few weeks-months! Then the rains came and the roads went…more landslides, more caved in sections. How do you build excellent roads with limited funds and significant geological faults in the Andes anyway??? I now bump along Ecuadorian roads with more grace and understanding than I did two years ago!

The President comes to town

Being a mother of two toddlers and often at home with them, I am sometimes out of sync with the happenings of Loja, but not this day! Friday, 17th April was a special day for Loja. Our house help, Gloria, came to work talking about the President Rafael Correa’s imminent arrival at 11am that morning. So, when we heard the helicopter land up the road we made our way out to see what was happening. We were in Calle Lourdes at just the right time to see the presidential cavalcade drive past, and our friend Fabricio got in a quick handshake too! Later on we waited down on the Plaza to see him appear there. Eventually he arrived and made his way up to the stage. In the crush of people I checked my phone in my back pocket, and checked it again 10 seconds later only to find that it was no longer there. Silly me, of course for leaving it my pocket, ah well. A momentous day…phoneless but the President was sighted.